Contract Law

My office also does a lot with contracts....a lot. I feel like a need a law degree in Contract law to understand a vast majority of what is going on. We have two lawyers, both specialized in real estate contract law, to help us negotiate and understand a lot of our agreements. They also help us interpret new bills proposed by the legislature that might affect our department.

My first week on the internship, they wanted me to consolidate two sets of file on the same property. All of it was legal jargon that made little to no sense to me. As I have become more familiar with the project, however, I feel more comfortable analyzing its contract laws, as well as those with other properties. This does not necessarily make the assignment go quicker. I received this project the first week I was there. I am still working on it. Last week, I finally finished going through the files, and writing on a sticky note what information each file contained. Now, I have to compare the two sets of files and shred any duplicate information, as well as put all files into an intelligble whole.

Noting that governmnet law and contracts will be a large portion of each of our careers some day, I think ASU should offer some sort of public policy law course. They may very well do, I just haven't seen it.

GPLET

GPLET is a large portion of what the DDO does:

Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) is administered by the City of Phoenix in order to lure potential job-creating businesses into (re)development areas. GPLET removes the business’s obligation to pay property taxes to the County of Maricopa, and instead negotiates an excise tax and a lease rate; the two combined are significantly less expensive within the terms of the GPLET agreement than the property tax – thus making settling in Phoenix more enticing to firms.

GPLET is implemented in the City of Phoenix to entice potential businesses, retail stores, hotels, research firms, and art entrepreneurs to the Downtown Phoenix region. The lease and excise tax are usually standard, but are subjected to negotiation depending on a variety of circumstances: how many jobs the firm will create, the financial standing of the firm, the location of the development, and so forth. The length of the lease is also open for negotiation; although, the standard lease length is twenty-five years. The first year on GPLET is typically free- new companies do not pay any lease rates or excise tax. The last year of the GPLET lease is designed to cost as much as property taxes, and substantially increase every year thereafter. Thus, it would behoove the business to buy the land from the City the last year of the lease. Increasing GPLET rates after the lease provides incentives for companies to move off of GPLET, purchase the land from the government, and begin paying regular ad valorem property taxes.

GPLET is a controversial issue. Stay tuned to see how the policy evolves.

The Basics of my Internship

Hey everyone,

Noting this is an internship blog, it would be necessary to introduce you to my internship. I am an intern at the City of Phoenix, Downtown Development Office. I started January 5 and should complete the internship around the end of March/beginning of April. It's been great and an interesting learning experience thus far. I have an adamant belief that books and lectures can only educate one so far, the rest has to be learned through experience. It has been neat to see how the concepts I learn in class are applied in reality.

The goal of the Downtown Development Office (DDO) is in its title- develop/revitalize downtown. So far, the DDO has a number of projects aimed at this goal: the Sheraton Hotel, the bio-medical campus, ASU downtown, a number of condos/apartment complexes, Artist Storefront, Lightrail, CityScape, and Arizona Center. I am sure I am missing some, but those are the projects I have been working on. Again, the goal is to get businesses, retail stores, and residents into downtown Phoenix by creating an agreeable and enticing cultural setting. The City of Phoenix also issues something called GPLET (Government Property Lease Excise Tax). In lue of potential incoming businesses paying property tax, they pay the substantially less expensive excise tax and a lease rate to the city. The lower tax rates lure businesses to the area. The terms of GPLET are negotiable- most, however, last 25 years, at which point the GPLET rates are the same as property tax rates- thus, it would behoove the business to buy the property at that point and pay regular property taxes.

That's a brief overview. I will get more into what I do in other blogs. Let me know if you have any questions.

An Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Kathryn Jones and I should be done with the MPA program by this fall. I came to ASU in July. I applied to several MPA schools but ASU seemed like the best fit, and I could finish the program within a year. Plus, when I was looking around at schools it was the middle of horrible winter in Utah, so sunny Arizona had extra appeal. My husband is going to law school this fall. He was originally going to go last Fall, but decided to defer so I could pursue my education. I have thus far really enjoyed the program. It's right up my ally. I researched MPA schools and the curriculum a lot, I was fairly certain it was what I wanted to do but not positive. It's hard to really gauge what you're into until after you're into it. I am very pleased to say that I am very happy with my choice of both graduate school and graduate program.

A little bit about me- I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado, and went to school in Utah (BYU). I majored in International Relations with a minor in business management. I met my husband on an internship in DC and we got married a year later. No babies, no pets. I really love to read- English classics are my favorite- Hardy, Lawrence, etc. I recently have really been getting into Tolstoy- I just finished Anna Karenina and am starting War and Peace, which for all practical reasons, is on hold till this crazy semester is over. I love to backpack and camp. My husband is trying to get me interested in golf, so we'll see how that goes.